The hair, the eyes, the laugh
by ChubbyPony
Summary: God, how he loved the sound of her laugh. The way it lit up her eyes. Oh and gods, her hair. [oneshot] Troyella


God, how he loved the sound of her laugh. The way it lit up her eyes and showed off a row of her perfect white teeth. And those eyes. She was a good actress and to most, she could hide whatever raw emotions were plaguing her on the inside. But she couldn't hide anything from him, for her eyes were like an open book. A book, yes, though written in a foreign language. He had learned very carefully how to decipher each wave of colour, each flicker of emotion, the way the brown shades would lighten or darken, depending on her current mood. One quick glance at her eyes and he could tell it all.

Oh, and gods, her hair. The way it caught the light, the way it framed her face, the way it looked after she had been out in the wind and was trying to tame it down. Her shampoo was some kind of sweet raspberry concoction and smelled of heaven. And it was hair. It wasn't shiny and slick and clumpy with product and spray. It was just hair. Soft and simple and he longed to be able to run his fingers through it.

But her psychical features paled in comparison to what came from the inside. The way that she somehow managed to be soft and sweet to everyone, no matter how angry and hard her eyes may have appeared to him. The way she always knew the answer to those questions the teachers asked you when they thought you weren't paying attention, because she somehow had the ability to daydream with one half of her mind and listen quite intently (and take quite thorough notes, which he would beg to copy later) with the other half. He had seen her yell perhaps once in all the time he had known her and even then, the way her cheeks flushed with anger, he found her incredibly beautiful. She was funny and witty and the only girl who had ever managed to maintain her composure around his father, who seemed to hate her, though he couldn't for the life of him figure out what in the world he could possibly find to hate about her.

And then there was the one thing that he loved most about her. Her voice. The voice of an angel. Something that had clearly been sent to him straight from God it was so wonderful. Were she ever to move away, he would not know how he would survive without being able to hear her voice. Sometimes, when he awoke late at night, tossing and turning in the heat of his room, unable to sleep, he would get the sudden urge to pick up his phone and call her, knowing that if he could only hear her sweet voice, the restless inside of him would die down. He had actually done it once, though after one ring, he had been overcome with the thought of waking her up and feeling incredibly guilty, he had hastily hung up the phone. Sometimes, when he knew she was busy and would have her phone set to go straight to her voicemail, he would call, simply to listen to her message. Because no matter how he felt, her voice would be his salvation. After winning a big game, he would feel so ecstatic that he thought nothing would ever compare, yet somehow, hearing her voice congratulate him would somehow bring him even higher. After failing a test, he could be feeling so low, knowing he was in for an angry lecture from his father, but hearing her voice comforting him and teasing him would somehow make everything ok again.

"Troy? Hello? Earth to Troy! Ground control to Troy, are you still with me?" he blinked hastily and tore himself out of his reverie at the sound of the voice which he loved oh so much.

"Huh? What were you saying?" His tongue felt big and numb and clumsy in his mouth, the way it sometimes did when she snuck up on him and he wasn't given a chance to get used to her presence. She bit her lip and her face stayed the same, but something in her eyes shifted and his heart sank. She was disappointed. No, not just disappointed, she looked….depressed. Oh god, what had he done?

"Uh, nothing. I was just, uh….just, wondering what, um…what answer you got for the math homework last night?" Ok, now that was strange. Especially when nearly every night, it was Troy who would call her in a panic because he didn't understand the homework and if he failed another one of those stupid pop quizzes his father would go ballistic. He opened his mouth and stumbled around his mind for answer, before he heard Chad snort and realized he must have looked like an idiot sitting there with his jaw hanging open. He snapped his mouth shut and flushed deeply, still trying to think of an answer, before he realized that she wasn't really even paying attention to him anymore and had turned back to face the front of the classroom.

He furrowed his eyebrows in confusion and heard a distinct sniff come from her direction. He slid his eyes over to Chad, who immediately glared at him and began waving his hands like an idiot, mouthing something that Troy couldn't understand. All he could say for sure was that Chad looked incredibly angry.

Minutes later, the bell sounded and before he could even reach out and take hold of her arm, she clumsily piled her things together, making a hasty exit from the room.

"What is wrong with you?" Chad shouted reaching out to smack Troy over the back of the head when he was sure the teacher's back was turned.

"What?" Troy grumbled, rubbing his head and looking defensive.

"Dude, she totally just asked you out and you weren't even paying attention!" He shook his head in disgust as they squeezed out of the door side by side.

"What do you mean?" He muttered, beginning to feel completely idiotic.

"You're such an idiot."

"Yeah, yeah, yeah I got that." He snarled in dark sarcasm.

"She asked you out. For weeks, you've been trying to get up the nerve to ask her and she finally does it for you and all you can say is Huh?" Chad continued.

"Chad!" He finally yelled. "What did she say?"

"She asked you to hang out tonight. And not hang out like friends hang out. Hang out like 'let's catch dinner and a movie' hang out. A date, Troy. Gabriella asked you out on a _date._ And all you could say was"

"Huh, yeah I know." With a growl of frustration, he smacked his forehead. Then, with a start, he realized he still had a chance. "Free period. It's free period. All I have to do is find her."

"She's on the roof." Taylor stated simply, slipping her hand inside Chad's and giving Troy a look. "I'm sure you know by now you're an idiot and I don't even know why I'm doing this for you, because Gabi was set on hiding in the bathroom, but I told her to go up to the roof, so at least you've still got a chance. Whether you deserve it or not is yet to be seen."

"Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you!" He nearly hugged her, but settled inside for flashing her a smile and dumping his books on top of Chad's and racing for the stairs.

Quietly, he tiptoed up the stairs and peeked around the corner to where she leaned against the railing and peered over the edge to the campus below.  
He took several large strides towards her and stopped, attempting to breathe deeply and quietly, afraid she would hear his heart pounding.

"Gab?" She gasped and whirled around, wiping the tears from her cheeks and attempting to look unconcerned.

"Yeah?" he was surprised that her voice could sound so bright, yet be laced with so much sadness and anger at the same time.

"Look, about math class…" He started, then stuttered and bit his tongue with a curse.

"It's fine. We're friends. Fine. Whatever. Works for me."

"Well it doesn't work for me!" he finally snapped. For weeks, he had been trying to gather the courage to ask her for more. For weeks he had been thinking and planning and struggling to come up with the perfection she deserved. And now he was tired of it. He was just going to do it. He realized then that she was still looking at him in confusion.

"I don't want to be your friend anymore."

"Oh- uh, well, ok, uh…" she stumbled over her words and bit her lip.

"No! No no!" He flushed a deep red when he realized how it must have sounded.

"That's uh, that's not what I meant. I don't want to be _just_ your friend anymore."

Her eyes lightened considerably and he could see the happiness in the brown waves of her eyes.

"So, I'm sorry for not paying attention to you in math class, but it's not exactly easy for me to concentrate around you. I mean, you just…it's just _everything._ Your hair, your laugh, your eyes. And I know you're mad at me, cause I mean, I should be paying attention to you all the time, cause you know, you totally deserve that and…" He had never realized how much he tended to ramble when he was nervous, but even as he thought of how stupid he must sound, rambling on and on, he was still talking. And talking. And then, he wasn't anymore.

She had reached him in one long stride and he had a second to think of how long her legs were before she had wrapped her hands around his neck and pulled his face towards her own, pressing her lips to his so softly and swiftly that he hardly felt it.

"Did anyone ever tell you that you talk waaay too much?" She giggled, her arms still wrapped loosely around his upper body.

"Well, we'll just have to fix that won't we?" He told her teasingly, feeling much more at ease now.

"Mmm hmmm." She smiled and nodded, pressing her lips to his again and pulling back, leaving him groaning in disappointment.

Slowly, and smiling at the way she shivered, he ran his hands up her arms to her hair, pulling her into a deeper kiss. He sighed into her mouth and she returned the gesture, melting into him and giving a small sound of pleasure as he did what he had been waiting so long to do.

He ran his fingers through her hair.

_Just a little one-shot. First ever HSM fic, so go easy. If all goes well, look for something longer soon._


End file.
